---
name: "rpncalc"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "rpncalc"
version: "1.36.8"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/rpncalc"
---

# rpncalc(1)

a reverse polish notation (RPN) calculator.

## NAME

rpncalc - a reverse polish notation (RPN) calculator.

## SYNOPSIS

**rpncalc** \[-h\]\|\[-v\]\|\["*expression*"\]

## DESCRIPTION

*rpncalc* partially emulates a HP 28S and is intended for every-day purposes (i.e. *1 1 +*), not for complex calculations (use [**gnuplot**(1)](/gnuplot/1.md) or [**octave**(1)](/octave/1.md) for these). *rpncalc* evaluates *expression* if given or reads from standard input otherwise. These features are not implemented:\
\
  • complex numbers,\
\
  • vector, matrices, lists and arrays,\
\
  • algebraic input, symbolic evaluation,\
\
  • units, and\
\
  • variables.\

*rpncalc* recognizes the following functions, operations, and constants:

| | | | | | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ! | % | %ch | %t | & | \* | + | - |
| / | ? | ^ | abs | acos | acosh | alog | and |
| arg | asin | asinh | atan | atan2 | atanh | bin | cbrt |
| ceil | char | chs | clear | cos | cosh | dec | depth |
| div | drop | drop2 | dropn | dup | dup2 | dupn | erf |
| erfc | exit | exp | expm | fact | floor | fp | gcd |
| help | hex | hypot | inv | ip | j0 | j1 | jn |
| ld | ldb | lg | lgamma | ln | lnp1 | log | max |
| min | mod | neg | not | oct | or | over | pick |
| pop | prec | prod | push | quit | rand | rdz | rint |
| rnd | rot | shl | show | shr | sign | sin | sinh |
| sl | slb | sq | sqr | sqrt | sr | srb | sum |
| swap | tan | tanh | warranty | xor | y0 | y1 | yn |
| \| | ~ |

Delimiters are *,*, *;*, *space*, *tab* and *newline*.

A few things have been added with respect to a HP28: the prefixes 0x resp. 0 stand for hexadecimal resp. octal constants, as in C. The Bessel Functions and the error functions are new, in order to make better use of the math library.

## OPTIONS

- *-h, --help*

  stands for help

- *-v, --version*

  prints out the current version of rpncalc and exits.

## SEE ALSO

[**dc**(1)](/dc/1.md), [**bc**(1)](/bc/1.md), [**gnuplot**(1)](/gnuplot/1.md), [**pari**(1)](/pari/1.md), [**octave**(1)](/octave/1.md), [**units**(1)](/units/1.md).

## BUGS

The floating point exception handling relies on the math library and is site- and architecture dependent.

Accuracy and range of the calculations is at the mercy of the math library  (and generally much worse than the original).

## AUTHOR

David Frey

## NOTE

HP 28S is a trademark of Hewlett Packard Instruments.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND COPYRIGHT

look into /usr/doc/rpncalc/copyright